Volga-Dnepr Crew Murdered in Bamako Terrorist Attack

The world has once again been turned upside-down by the recent attacks and brutal slaughter of innocent people in Paris and Bamako by those who proclaim themselves as being the future saviors of the world.
Misguided, mislead and brutal thugs who it seems can only be stopped by a concerted effort by the world’s leaders acting with one voice.

Volga-Dnepr mourns the loss of six crew members
The recent carnage in Bamako has now also hit Volga-Dnepr, the Russian heavy lift specialist airline.
Six of VD’s flight crew were cut down by terrorists in the attack on the Radisson-Blu hotel on November 20th.

The twelve man Antonov AN-124 crew had previously positioned from Oslo to Bamako with a load of heavy construction material, had finished offloading their aircraft and were resting at the hotel when it was hit by terrorists at around seven in the morning.

Six crew members were brought to safety by Special Forces troops and were taken to Bamako airport where they at first found temporary refuge on board their aircraft.
Tragically, six Volga-Dnepr crew members were among the twenty-one victims of the raid.

´Torn out of life by sick Jihadist terrorists
In the meantime all six crew members have been identified by Russian and Mali authorities and Volga-Dnepr has positioned a Boeing 737 aircraft to Bamako to bring the deceased back home to their families in Russia.

Six guys - just going about their work - having a well earned rest - and then torn out of this life by murderous thugs who in their sick minds think they are doing the world a service.
How wrong they are!

Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families and friends of the Volga-Dnepr crew members who are tragic victims of persons whom we’d rather not even think of as being humans.

Nothing can bring back these men, who were torn out of life of no fault of their own.
It only remains for us, the global air cargo community to keep them in fond memory.

IN MEMORIAM

Alexander V. Kononenko - Flight Navigator,
Vladimir V. Kudryashov - Radio Operator
Konstantin V. Preobrazhenskly - Flight Engineer
Sergey A. Yurasov - Load Master
Stanislav N. Dumanskly - Aircraft Mechanic
Pavel A. Kudryavtsev -Aircraft Mechanic

May they rest in peace.

John Mc Donagh